Deliverance of the Vanquished
by Death in Jude
Summary: Sarah must conquer the Labyrinth again in order to save the existence of her childhood friends and sworn enemy, the Goblin King. Only this time she must follow the rules. 1st fic...plz R/R
1. Remember

Deliverance of the Vanquished 

Chapter One: Remember 

Created by-Death in Jude 

She could not remember the last time she had been here. The little room of jaded memories. They all flooded back to her in a whirlwind of blurred fogginess. Her childhood. The golden years of youth. Sarah Williams was back at home. 

College had been fun. The guys chasing after her, hoping for an erotic moment at the latest beer bash; the last minute study sessions with people she hardly knew; the cramming before the final; and the cute professor who seemed to make class worth the while. She would miss it all, but Sarah would have time for that later. She was home and it felt good to be back. 

Her father and stepmother greeted her with open arms. 'We miss you,' they had said. In, truth, Sarah missed them too, but she longed to see her baby brother, Toby. 

She missed the blue-eyed, blonde hair lad deeply and the angst of him being apart from her, drove Sarah into craziness. The two had grown close over the years, despite of the age difference between them; Sarah--twenty-two, Toby--seven. But neither cared; they had each other and a dream world. 

Sarah tried to hide her disappointment when she was told that Toby was with a friend when she inquired about her brother's whereabouts. She later learned that it was her stepmother's fault, for the simple woman never told the child about his sister's sudden visit away from college wildlife. Evil glares were exchanged over a wordless dinner of steamed pot roast and red-skinned potatoes, then Sarah hastily retreated to her sanctuary; her old bedroom. 

It was in there she now stands, dazed and somewhat confused as her childhood come hurdling before her very eyes. Sighing, she starts to rummage threw her long-forgotten belongings. 

--- 

After hours of weary search and rescues, Sarah stumbles across a large cardboard box marked 'Play Things'. Curiosity gets the best of her, and she awkwardly pulls the hulking box from the shadows of her closet. 

Unknowing what to do next, Sarah numbly stares it with a perplexed look upon her face. Shakily she brushes away the layers of dust covering the box's taped surface. The dust fills her nostrils and she rapidly beginnings to sneeze like there is no tomorrow. Coughing she continues on with her quest to figure out what is within the box's shelter. 

Sarah carefully unfolds the box's flaps after dropping the sticky tape away from her fingers. She cautiously peeps inside. 

"Oh my gosh!" And she pulls out a faded dress of white cloth. The dress is water stained, yet still beautiful as the day she bought it. Grinning from ear to ear, Sarah shoves herself to her knees and runs to her vanity mirror. 

Looking pass the shoddy photographs of her juvenescence, she dreamily gazes at her overjoyed reflection in the smooth glass. She giggles and places the gown to her slim body. Swaying like the treetops in the wind, her giggling stops and her smile fades. 

Can she still wear it? 

Hurrying to her bed, Sarah throws the frock onto it and tears away at her clothing with trembling fingers. 

She removes her shirt, then pants and ponders about her bra. Laughing warmheartedly, Sarah unclasps the designer bra and it tumbles to a heap on the floor. Heart beating wild with anticipation, she reaches for the costume. 

Her hands grew cold and numb as she unzips the back and fingers the softness of the fabric. Knowing that she has nothing to gain or lose, Sarah quickly steps into the folds of cloth. She quickly zips the back with easy and carefully trots back before the mirror. Her eyes glow with triumph. 

It still fits. 

She allows her deep raven-colored locks to fall free from her lose ponytail and they cascades into a sea of darkness upon her shoulders. Her hazel eyes cannot contain their excitement as she twirls in front of her vanity with the mother of all smiles painted across her face. 

Giggling, Sarah falls to the floor. Breathlessly she cries out, 

"I am a princess!" And more laughter follows. 

Getting herself under control, she reaches again toward the box. Sarah grips the edge and roughly tugs it toward her person. The tattered edge tears, then rips into pieces, allowing the box's contents to explode onto the floor. 

"Oh shit," and she throws the ripped piece of cardboard away. Her eyes rapidly dart from item to item and then stop. 

With shaking fingers, Sarah reaches toward the object that captured her fancy. It is a red leather bound book with gold imbedded letters. 'Labyrinth' they read. Her hand stops in midair and her breath catches in her throat. 

Should she pick it up? 

Uneasiness soars though her and goosebumps tingle at the surface of her flesh. Her heart thuds in her ears and her mind heeds the warning, 'Don't'! 

"I am not afraid--" Sarah whispers aloud, "--it's only a simple book." Her reasoning goes unnoticed and her mouth is parched. Sarah numbly runs her tongue across her lips and her hand swiftly falls onto the book's cover. 

Demons seem to be dancing around as she draws the play book neared to her. Sarah shivers, trying in vain to knock the feeling away. She failed. 

The book feels hot in the palm of her hand and Sarah, herself, begins to feel feverish. 

What is happening? 

Her blank mind allows her no answer, but she finds comfort in knowing that memories lay nested in the book's pages. A smile breaks onto a placid face as the cover is flipped open. The pages are flipped. A gasp and the book plunges back into the pile of junk. 

--- 

Sarah is perched on her bed. Her body quivers and breathing is shallow. 'Labyrinth' now lays on Sarah's lap and it's pages are wide open. Disbelief is the only emotion that Sarah can muster. Her heart rate slowly begins to fall. 

"This is not real. This is not happening." Sarah repeats the words over and over. But they are foreign to her and provide little comfort. Her spellbound eyes leisurely drift to the book on her lap. 

Her favorite story, the one which changed her very life, lay blank as the yellowed paper before her. 

--- 

I don't own the Labyrinth, but characters and events not in the film I do own. Please leave a review. Thank you for reading. 


	2. The labyrinth

Deliverance of the Vanquished 

Chapter Two: The labyrinth 

Created by-Death in Jude 

--- 

Sarah stood near to shock. Her hands trembled as they held the leather bound book with their grasp. Her mind was nothing more than a blank slate, wiped clean of all memory. She arose from her bed, her gown clenching onto the dampness on her shapely legs. She did not turn away from the blank pages in her childhood storybook as she took a couple of shaky steps. Sarah could not, she was spellbound by the mystery which the pages aroused within her mind. 

_What is going on_? She absently wondered to herself. If the story was gone... Fear gently nipped at Sarah. What about her friends? Tears bristled into her eyes. Deeply breathing, Sarah tried to keep them away, but one swiftly broke over her eyelid and ran amuck onto her flushed cheek. She feared the worst, but tried to keep in mind that she knew nothing of their conditions. 

A breeze blew, it's warmness tickled the flesh of Sarah's high-cheekbones. Alarm radiated throughout the uneasiness of her brain. She never left her bedroom window open! 

Heart jumping into her throat, Sarah's gaze tore away from the book and desperately searched about her. Sarah was instantly mesmerized, frozen to the very spot where she stood as a muffled moan of sudden surprise escaped through her lips. The storybook plummeted away from her numb fingers into the red-clay soil that amazingly replaced the plush carpeting of her bedroom floor. 

There was no doubt in her mind where she was for Sarah had been her before. It was the very place which haunted her vivid dreams, turning them into spine-chilling nightmares. It was also the very place which reshaped her very life. A trembling hand covered Sarah's gasping lips. 

"Labyrinth." 

Her voice was muffled, but her ears clearly hear. Sarah wildly shook her head with disbelief as more tears sprung into her horrorstruck eyes. This was not happening! Not to her! What wish did she make to get here? Was it someone else? Toby? 

Sarah shut her eyes, all questions vanished from her mind for she stubbornly refused to believe that she was truly here. When Sarah reopened them, the same vast landscape was displayed before them. The same sun-baked high that rose high into the sky, the same skeleton-like trees reaching into oblivion and the same maze, the one which extended into forever in a mist of deadlines. Realization hit her like a ton of bricks, she was truly here, at the gates of the labyrinth. 

Sarah fell to her knees, a disparate sob screaming out of her throat. She wanted to run away, but where to? Nothing made any sense to her, only that she was trapped here and could not apprehend why. 

Blindly reaching out, Sarah's hands wildly tore though the loose topsoil, searching for her lost book. When her fingers swept across the familiar feel of leather, she drug the book to her. Fanatically searching for some type of an answer to why she was here, Sarah ripped through the storybook's yellow pages. Sarah growled when she found nothing, only blankness. 

"**No**!" 

The book suddenly grew red-hot in Sarah's hands. She feverishly released it, startled by the ungodly magic that reeked havoc over it. Sarah numbly studied at the book as if it were a coiled snake. Just as she was about to touch the book again, its cover split open as if it were possessed by unholy demons.The pages wildly flipped open and then suddenly stopped as if they were frozen. Sarah, dumbfounded, peered at the marked page displayed for her eyes only. Loopy writings were hurriedly scribbled across the page. 

_'Why do you cry out so, Sarah?'_

__Sarah could not believe her eyes. She could only gaze upon the book as if it had the power to eat her whole. 

_'Speak_,_'_ the book demanded. Sarah choked on her disbelief. Her book was trying to communicate to her! 

Sarah brought her tongue quickly over her dry lips as a million question poured into her troubled thoughts. Her heart faltered as she spoke the first one that surfaced past her quivering lips. 

"What are you?" 

As if by ghostly magic, the eerie words floated onto the blankness upon the yellowed paper. 

'_Not what, but who, Sarah. I am the labyrinth_.' 

Sarah wanted to laugh. A small grin appeared onto her lips. The book sensed Sarah's disbelief to it's claim and white light glared from it's pages, sending Sarah veering away, hands upon her eyes. Peering through her fingers, Sarah read. 

_'Do not doubt me, mortal! I am the labyrinth; it's soul, it's essence and it's power. And I am very real! This is real!'_

The glaring light vanished as quickly as it came and Sarah shuddering, unshielded herself. 

"I never doubted you," Sarah unsteadily replied. 

_'Then why do you taunt me with your pretty smile, Sarah? I may speak through a mere book, but my eyes can see all.'_

Sarah swallowed. She was loosing a battle she never could have won in the first place. 

"Why I am here?" 

Evil laugher chuckled into Sarah's wide-open ears. She rapidly glanced around her, a chill snaked dangerously down her arched spine. More swift inscribing smeared onto the pages. 

_'The rules, Sarah. The rules were broken.'_

--- 

I don't own the Labyrinth, but characters and events not in the film I do own. Please leave a review. Thank you for reading. 


	3. Following the Rules by the Book

Deliverance of the Vanquished 

Chapter Three: Following the Rules by the Book 

Created by-Death in Jude 

--- 

"What are you talking about," Sarah madly shouted the possessed storybook. "What rules!" 

The book briefly glowed eerie white and then proceeded to answer Sarah's demanding questions. 

_'The rules of the Labyrinth Game. The rules to follow when retrieving a stolen child. The rules, Sarah, rules!'_

Her temples were pounding and her head was spinning. The book's theories of wrongdoing did not make any sense to her. Sarah's eyes began to fill with hopeless tears. She felt pitiful, crying because a book was getting the best of her.Sarah sniffed, quickly wiping the warm tears away with the heel of her hand. Red-eyed, she glared at the book. All she wanted was to go home, to see Toby and then go back to her dorm at college, feeling refreshed and carefree, not to read the lunatic ranting of a demonic storybook who was bent over broken rules. 

"I don't understand," was all that Sarah could say to it. In truth Sarah could not figure out what rules she had apparently broken. It had been years since she recused Toby from the clutches of the Goblin King. As far as she knew she had been successful in her retrieval of Toby, until now. Could this be a trick of the Goblin King? Revenge? 

"What rules did I break?" 

_'The rule you broken...'_

Sarah's breathing halted within her chest, making her feel absolutely dizzy, but her eyes feverishly decoded the words which the book leisurely took it's time in inscribing. 

_'The one who wishes shall be the only one to recuse the damned.'_

Sarah's lips began to tremble. A tear tickled down her clay-soiled cheek. Fear gripped at her gut. She began to feel nauseated as her body tensed with sudden uneasiness. She began to doubt all feeling of hope and rapidly turn into a state of despair and utter disbelief that her living nightmarewas never completely over, it was only just beginning. 

A million and one questions ran rampant throughout her mind. Why was she here now? Was her friends and brother safe from the demonic conduct of the labyrinth? What did this mean? 

"I don't understand what your asking of me," Sarah began, trembling, "Why I am here? Why right now are you telling me these things? Why not then when the rule was broken?" 

_'Did you ever reflect back to this book after your adventure through my walls, Sarah? No, you did not. You hid the story within your vanity doors and ever since, you have not looked back, thought the nightmares still haunt you. This is why now, simply because you have allowed me to reach out to you, to correct the evils which you have produced.'_

"Oh no," Sarah whimpered a low, shaking her head. "What have I done?" 

_'Shall I tell you?'_ The book taunted. Sarah's shook her head yes. She disparately needed answers, all of which the storybook could provide for her. 

_'By breaking the rule which I have set, you have allowed a great evil to overtake me, thus allowing change to the balances of good and evil within my walls, one that I can no longer control.'_

A shiver shoot down her spine. Gasping for air, Sarah's eyes momentarily darted away from the book to stare about her. She found the words of the book to be right_, _thelabyrinth was indeed changing. 

The scenery was dark, as if it were painted by gloom. The trees had lost their glitter, their magic which had once possessed her with awe. The sky no longer shown it's color of bright crimson, but now was bewitched by hazed purple. The labyrinth itself seemed to appeared as if it were decaying, fading completely. Sarah swallowed. She knew she was here for a reason, but that reason was unclear to her until now. She peered back down to the book's tattered pages. 

"What must I do?" 

_'I will reorder time, upon which restoring you with your original thirteen hours. Resolve the labyrinth's puzzles and upon making to the goblin castle, without breaking any rules, the wrong will be made right. If you shall fail, all is lost and you will be returned to your time. '_

Sarah rose up from her knees, firmly holding the book in her hands. 

"How will I know if am not breaking another rules?" Sarah questioned raising a brow. 

_'They are written in my pages...'_

Slowly they appeared before Sarah's wondering eyes, just as the book had told her. 

_One with a heart of gold- with a foolish wish, a child's innocents you have sold._

_In order to reclaim- the child, in order to establish no shame._

_Follow these very commands- for you and the child shall soon leave these very lands. _

_Never give up hope- for you will coupe._

_Conquer where your own path strays- do not follow what others may say._

_Be within the bounds of time- then your awards will be sublime._

_And in the center is where it shall consummate- so began your journey of fate. _

Sarah blinked, sighed and braced herself for another adventure through hell's gates. Before she could will her legs to walk, she could not help but ask one final question. 

"Is Toby safe?" 

More black ink mysteriously bleed onto the page. 

_'Yes, but others are not.'_

Troubled by the book's blunt response, Sarah peeled away from it's pages. Horror rapidly flashed into her pretty features. The book spilled away from her hands to the softened earth below. The still drifting wind blew, cascading it's mugginess over Sarah's stiffened body. The pages of the fallen book wildly flipped as if it where the wind itself turning them with invisible fingers. 

The wind suddenly ceased to blow, molding the musty air into a deathly calm. The book lay upon its spine as writing stealthily materialized onto the blank yellowness of a new page. 

_'Your adventure begins now, my Sarah.'_

Sarah could only blankly gaze before her, forcefully coking on her pain filled tears. The silent words were unnoticed and they hastily evanesced as quickly as they had came. 

--- 

I don't own the Labyrinth, but characters and events not in the film I do own. Please leave a review. Thank you for reading. 


End file.
